Community Notes reportedly “added context” to President Joe Biden’s recent tweet which bemoaned the alleged gender pay disparity, claiming that the narrative was misleading.
President Biden posted a picture of a letter written by a girl named Charlotte, in which she said it is “not fair” that men earn more money than women and that he should “do something” since he is the president. In his post, Biden stated that he “couldn’t agree more.” He claimed that he would work to equalize pay between the two sexes.
“Women lose thousands of dollars each year, and hundreds of thousands over a lifetime, because of gender and racial wage gaps,” Biden tweeted. “I’m committed to building an economy where my daughters have the same rights and opportunities as my sons.”
Charlotte, I couldn’t agree more.
Women lose thousands of dollars each year, and hundreds of thousands over a lifetime, because of gender and racial wage gaps.
I’m committed to building an economy where my daughters have the same rights and opportunities as my sons. pic.twitter.com/0vholYMTaR
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 14, 2023
Community Notes “added context” to the president’s tweet by providing an alternative viewpoint on the causes of the earnings gap between the sexes, according to a screenshot of the note. Community Notes appeared to state that the reported pay gap does not account for occupation choices, education levels, or hours worked.
Twitter really tried to debunk the gender pay gap by.. admitting that the gender pay gap exists.
another Biden win! https://t.co/00P0JIkcYH pic.twitter.com/UnXlaRDgE1
— g whiz (@gavinbena) March 15, 2023
“This myth is incorrect and has been debunked,” Community Notes concluded, according to the screenshot.
“Community Notes aim to create a better informed world by empowering people on Twitter to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading Tweets. Contributors can leave notes on any Tweet and if enough contributors from different points of view rate that note as helpful, the note will be publicly shown on a Tweet,” according to Twitter.
The validity of the gender pay gap has been much-debated. The Foundation for Economic Education summarized a report by Harvard University which claimed that the gender pay gap can largely be attributed to lifestyle choices between men and women. It references a study of Massachusetts bus drivers which shows that even in a career with “almost no” room for subjectivity in pay or promotion, women made less because they chose to work less hours and accept fewer overtime shifts.
“The difference in male and female earnings at the MBTA was explained by those ‘so-called women’s choices,'” the report stated.